Painting

Kandinsky refers to a “language of colour and form” while others, such as de Kooning, refer to the creation of “painterly languages.” Meanwhile, Virginia Woolf refers to a “silent kingdom of paint” lurking beyond canvases and Rothko’s work touches something within us in a visceral way. Painting is a mysterious world that exists within, through, and beyond us. It is one that I am exploring equally as a linguist, poet, fiction writer, and painter.

My painting generally explores energetic interactions between psychological states, the body, and pigment. I engage in automatic painting and often bring work into dialogue with the unconscious through dreams and meditation. As such, my work tends to integrate aspects of abstract and surreal method.

I originally studied lens/darkroom photography and worked in the field prior to studying painting. Then, after learning the basics in watercolor and ink, I began independent studies in oil while working to develop my abilities. Along the way, I also conducted some experiments with liquid photographic emulsions and with watercolor in the rain.

Meanwhile, my current work integrates abstract painting with my literary art, including concrete poetry and concepts from my fiction writing.

Abstract Poetry/Painting

The body of work I am currently seeking to develop and exhibit features abstract poetry upon the surface of fields of color. The juxtaposition of the two generates traces upon the eye of the beholder such that impressions of the letters linger as the eye travels from one canvas to another as well as within the same canvas. Thus, the following prototypes present samples that I am building upon in order to refine the concept into a gallery-quality collection for exhibition.

X_it, oil on canvas, 4′ x 3′, 2023.

d, oil on recycled canvas, 38″ x 38″, 2024.

These prototypes obviously leave a lot to be desired in terms of quality, but were rapid proofs of concept that I will refine when I earn time and support to invest into preparing exhibition-quality work.

Pareidolic-Space (2025 Exhibition)

Paul Valéry writes that when we sacrifice size in a poem, we can sometimes increase the power of our work. Out of necessity, my work in 2025 was tiny, but I had the honor of hanging the collection at The Natural Wine Company in Williamsburg. The pieces emerge from liminal spaces (the intercourse of dreams and reality and of the literary and the visual forms) in bursts of manic energy, an amalgamation of years of research into automatic painting. The results retain a contained dynamism that dances with the beholders’ perceptions, a quality I am working to deepen and to replicate within my larger-scale canvases. Conceptually, the exhibition dives into Pareidolia, the tendency of the mind to see patterns and order where none exist. Pigment and negative space on paper lead the viewer through a story within each frame and across frames. One can also imagine that they might have been painted so forcefully that they will manifest anew within one’s dreams (and within the world beyond the frame.)

Xt, watercolor on paper

Monarch 11, watercolor on paper

Chaos and Regression, watercolor on paper

Gli Uccelli, watercolor on paper

Berserk stroke, watercolor on paper

Decapitation of a phoenix; watercolor, glue, and gouache on paper

REM Intruders, watercolor on paper

Additional Prior Works

Mist, oil on canvas, 60″ x 38″, 2023.

Abstract Study, oil on canvas, 3(14″ x 11″), 2022.

The Chimaera Dances (to one’s delight), silver emulsion with photographic exposure and acrylic on canvas, 14″ x 11″, 2022.

Space Debris, silver emulsion with photographic exposure, watercolor, and acrylic on canvas, 14″ x 11″, 2022.

Mist II, oil on canvas, 60″ x 38″, 2024.

Hrönir, watercolor on paper, 8″ x 11″, 2023.

Work in oil pastel on canvas from 2024 can be viewed on Instagram @wyrdtwoone.

Books that have informed my practice

“Aminadab” or the Fantastic Considered as Language—Jean-Paul Sartre
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man—James Joyce
50 Secretos “Magicos” Para Pintar—Salvador Dalí
Concerning the Spiritual in Art—Vasily Kandinsky
Geometry of Shadows—Giorgio de Chirico
To Paint is to Love Again—Henry Miller
Oh, to be a painter! — Virginia Woolf
The Artist’s Reality—Mark Rothko
Red—John Logan